Mini DV to Beta?
 

Most stations will only broadcast Beta, or one of the other out of reach formats. If I were to shoot and edit on mini DV, how hard is it to transfer to one of these other systems for broadcast?

Hi,

Many small post and duplication facilities have Beta SP capability today. Call and get prices and it may be more affordable than you think. I use a Sony BVW 35, it's a portable VTR that I can also use to make short dubs. Used Betacam SP equipment is on ebay all the time. But unless you know the equipment, cheap equipment can turn into expensive lessons. The upper drum assembly for my unit is around $2000. Some organizations, stations etc. are format snobs. If it's not Betacam SP it can't be broadcast. Sometimes these folks can be won over with an excellent demo reel. Cut 5 to 7 minutes of your best footage and pay to have it bumped to Beta SP. Let them watch your reel, then explain that it was all shot and edited on DV. That will probably raise a few eyebrows. Good luck.

Jeff Donald

How does the bump up loook? are there any issues that one should be aware of? I am mulling over shooting a national commercial spot on the Canon XL1S instead of Film or HD.

I know the camera is capable of capturing the images I need, but I haven't run a test bumping it up to the stock stations use.

Any advice?

What I really wanted to know, was how the video actually transferred. Does the Beta equipment have firewire, s-vid, or composite in? How similar are the formats in resolution, etc. ?

I could just take the tapes to someone with the equipment and capabilities to do the transfer, and then trust in them. But, I really want to know some of the inner workings myself, just for future reference if the need should arise.
Thanks,
Keith

The technical side is rather easy. The better dub or post houses will use a transcoder that accepts firewire in and encodes it to component (3 wire). The audio signal is split out to analog, balanced and feed to the 4 channels of the Beta SP deck. The DV signal is digital, therefor no need for a TBC to correct for skew, or head impact etc. The better dub and post houses will be using the Sony BVW equipment or digital Beta equipment. The PVW and UVW series from Sony don't have as good as specs but may produce nearly as good a copy for less money. The real quality difference is in using the 3 wire component connector rather than the single wire, composite connection. S-Video is only a slight improvement over composite. DV is a component signal, 4:1:1 and Betacam SP is 4:2:2. Hence, slightly better detail in the color portion of the signal. But being analog suffers from multi generational editing.

I pay particular attention to the lighting of the hi-lights in DV. No amount of Post magic can restore blown hi-lights to a dub. Set your Zebra pattern to maybe 80 or 85 % to give yourself a margin of safety. If you crush the shadows a little, that is more easily restored in post or when a dub is made.

I hope this helps and post back with additional questions.

Jeff

Oh, look on Canons DV pages they used to have a real good quicktime about shooting a National VR 10 commercial using the XL1

Thanks Jeff,
That was more like what I wanted to know. Is there any problems going from 4:1:1 to 4:2:2? Any artifacts or distortions in pixel shape or color?
Keith

dv to beta
 

I have a 20 mins mini DV footage which I would like to transfer to beta SP, does anyone know how much will it cost usually? and where can I do it in the bay area?

I actually have the footage on DVD also, so would it be cheaper to do a dvd to beta sp transfer or minidv to beta sp transfer?

Thanks a lot.

beta.. is 720x486.... and mini dv .. is 720x480... so if u go from a mini dv to a beta.. there are 6x un used.. this is a dead giveaway to a broadcaster that your stuff was shot on mini dv.. but if this isnt a concern.. dont worry about it.

i have the capability and ability to transfer mini-dv to beta (or the reverse)

hardware is:

dvx100
(firewire to)
canopus ADVC100
(RCA Vid, Ch1, Ch2 audio to)
Sony BVW-50 Beta SP deck

contact me direct for my rates, etc. so this post isn't misunderstood as spam.

flacaproductions@aol.com

thanks